fight the break of dawn

In the early morning I'll be headed away from campus to JORDAN! Woot!! I'm looking forward to the sightseeing and sun bathing! There are about 20 of us going, almost all international students. We are road-tripping the whole way there. In a big bus this time (high five!) Everything is crammed into 6 days. Cairo to Dahab to Nuweiba to Aqaba to Wadi Rum to Petra to Amman to the Dead Sea to Jerash then back to Aqaba to Nuweiba to Cairo. March 27th- April 2nd!!! I'm worried it will be too much in a small amount of time, but that means ultimate fun!!

Did you notice I'm coming back April 2nd? Yup, Good Friday. Yup, day before my birthday. I'm really excited! For my birthday I'll probably go out to dinner (or just dessert) with whoever I can find that is still on campus. I'm turning 21. Weird, but true. I know of a good restaurant with good dessert within walking distance from campus. It will be lovely. Since I've been here I've become obsessed with food. I'm constantly thinking about what I'll eat next or what I can have for my next meal. I have little routines (such as Subway every thursday... 6 inches for lunch and 6 inches for dinner) and I am homesick for food at home. I want so many things!! I also gave up ice cream, pizza, and soda for lent. Crazy, I know. So I am homesick for A LOT. Basically, if you want to do something for my birthday, just go get some ice cream!

I know you can't really send me anything, so I have come up with some requests. I'd like Kirsten to treat herself to In-N-Out. I'd like Katie and Samantha to take each other out for dinner (I don't care where, Lazy Dog maybe?). I'd like Momma and Papa to go see the movie "Oceans" which comes out some time in April (Earth Day). Maybe Grandma and Grandpa (Derek too?) could play a game in my honor (nertz? wii?). I'd like Kim to find a really really good pizza place in Chicago, and if that's too big of a request, homemade pizza is fine too :)

And can someone please go to Chipotle!? Thanks. I'm eating vicariously through you.

I hope you are well. Love you a lot!! See you when I get back! xoxo

the days are getting long

I hope everyone is enjoying spring and had a good Vernal Equinox!! The days are getting longer (does that mean hotter for Egypt? uh oh).

Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to visit an international school here in Egypt. My Educational Psychology course requires that we visit a school where we can do a number of different things there, I chose to participate in running a Disability Awareness Campaign. Three other girls in my class chose the same project so we became a team! The planning for our campaign was rather haphazard. We knew we wanted to do activities with the students, middle school-aged, and keep them engaged in what we would teach them about what it means to have a disability. Our professor didn't agree with some of the activities we had planned and other material things, like a wheel chair, were difficult to come by. We only had a few weeks to do this and had to use what resources we had collectively.

One girl had a driver (fancy eh?) take us the school. We were there really early, which is good, we needed to prepare. We had been slacking on the teamwork and compilation part of this entire project. We saw the room where we would be giving our power point presentation and edited our power point because this is the first time we had seen it with all of our slides together. We made sure we were ready. And we were, except... where was the projector and screen? I guess the school was using it elsewhere. The one thing we needed to make sure worked and we couldn't check until last minute! It was really easy to make me stress out at this point, midterms week is a scary thing! Everything worked and the students were quiet and patient with our long presentation. Thirty-five of the students went with us into the courtyard while the other 35 stayed in the "Drama Room" for the Bullying Awareness Campaign, presented by other students in my psychology class. I was treating it like low ropes or deck games at camp. They were about the same age as campers and equally excited! Middle schoolers love when classes are cancelled (actually, all students tend to love that). We had them get in chronological order without talking, asked them to identify objects with a blindfold on, had them try to read lips while wearing headphones, and challenged them to button up shirts using only their non-dominant hand. We had about 40 minutes for these activities and the kids loved participating! It was really great, much better than any of us had expected. We gave them certificates saying they had successfully completed "DA Day" which is just the name we gave our campaign.

The school is an international school with grades preschool through 9th grade I believe. Everything is in English but the students were all Egyptian. The teachers and administration were from all over, but of course fluent in English. The adults weren't really helpful to us, I'm not sure if they were supposed to be, but they didn't help calm the students down or anything like that. They just watched and were entertained. That was somewhat irritating. Anyway, this school "likes to incorporate spirituality into everything." They had a mosque and all the students were praying before it was time for their session with us, very different from anything I've experienced in my schooling. My group had another psychology student from the US in it, I think that gave our campaign more intrigue than the bullying group. The students were fascinated with us and our different accents. A group of girls told us that they hate it in Egypt and wish they lived in America (they had lived there for a short time previously I guess). As fun as the project was, interacting with egyptian middle schoolers, I am so glad it is over. Now, to write the paper about it all.

The midterms are over, just two more classes and it's spring break time! I definitely have spring fever! Our break is almost two weeks so it's really too bad no one is coming to visit me. It's okay, I'll forgive you.

behind me is the mosque!


sunsets here are really something! I'll have to save all the pictures I take of the sky and make an album of just that. also, this is looking out away from campus, all the buildings you see are unfinished skeletons of buildings. Thanks for reading! Love you!

i almost believed that the pictures are all i can feel

it seems like the mountains were more orange than they look in this photo.

i was so happy!!!!

you can see the sun poking through!!! just before the camera dies...

i wanted you to see my sweet braid!!! this is long after the hives went away. which only took about 40 minutes.

trip to Saint Catherine

Original Itinerary: Depart campus at 8:00pm. Drive to Sinai. Arrive at the base of the mountain/ St. Catherine's monastery. Hike the mountain and get to the top by sunrise. Hike down the mountain and visit the monastery. Drive to Nuweiba, check in at the hotel. Enjoy day at the beach. Next day breakfast at the hotel, check out, and drive back to Cairo. Well those plans changed! This itinerary left a lot of stuff out, I even added some of my own information to clear it up for you a bit. Notice how seldom meals are mentioned. I got this itinerary from school. But here's how it really went: Meet outside the dorms at 8:00pm. Wait for a bus. Find one 20-person bus for the 24 students going. Wait for a second bus. Give up on waiting and half the crew leaves at 9:00pm to get to Sinai on time to hike it and see the sunrise. Drive and drive and drive. 2:00am and still driving so we change plans. We'll hike it tomorrow. Drive a few more hours to the village of Nuweiba. Arrive just in time to see the sky barely light up from the impending dawn! Sleep for a few hours. Breakfast at the hotel. Enjoy the day at the beach. Dinner. Depart the hotel at 10:00pm for Sinai. Arrive, hike, see the sunrise. Visit the monastery. Breakfast. Depart back to Cairo.

The change of plans worked out. None of us got much sleep on that 6 hour bus ride but the 3 hours in the hotel room were good enough right? It was a restful day at the beach for the most part. I think only one person there felt sufficiently rested up for a 4 hour hike up Moses mountain. The beach was somewhat enjoyable and pretty. There were no waves and there were a lot of sandbars meaning you could walk far out into the sea without getting very deep. When I went back to shore, however, I was greeted with hives growing on my arms and legs. I had no idea what to do. I rinsed off at the beach showers and waited for the hives to go away. They eventually did. I'm still not sure what the reaction was to, if anyone has any ideas feel free to share them with me. Next time I'm bringing Benadryl. Hiking Mt. Sinai was amazing. I really loved it. The stars were perfect and amazing. So bright and numerous! Every group that hikes this mountain is required to have a "guide." Our guide was particularly annoying. He wanted us to go faster all the time and kept yelling at us "AFRICAAA!!" That was apparently our group name. I have no idea why. We only had two Arabic speakers in our entire group. Who's idea was that?! The "chaperones" didn't even speak Arabic. Oh well. The sunrise was beautiful and breathtaking. It was a little chilly but I was more than prepared for that minor detail! In the midst of taking way too many pictures of the sun rising my camera died. There was one point during the hike where I tried using my camera as a flashlight, that probably contributed to it dying at a crucial point in the gorgeous sunrise! The monastery was at the bottom of the mountain and was uninteresting. That might seem rude but considering how much sleep we had gotten and how many hours we had been hiking and how the temperature was rising and the food intake was depleting, nothing could hold my attention. I saw the "burning bush" though. It was a lot bigger than I though it would be. And my instincts were telling me "FOOD" before they were telling me "enjoy this fascinatingly historical shrub." I took one good long look at it and left. The next part of the trip is the part I have the largest complaint about. Ugh. I apologize for my attitude. Well, we decided to go to a restaurant vs "grab and go." I was concerned about getting nutrients instead of cookies and chips at a gas station (which is what I assumed "grab and go" meant). After 30 minutes of our bus being lost and confused about where this restaurant was, we made it to our friends and those on the other bus at some very secluded restaurant. It was a "buffet." Rolls, cheese, tomato slices, cucumber slices, cold potatoes, cold beans, warm juices, and hot tea. Does this sound buffet to you? Well, I tried to get those nutrients. After some complaints we managed to get the kitchen to make us "omlettes." These were just egg folded in half, no cheese! No veggies or nutrients!

The 6 hour drive home commenced. A couple hours in our tire popped. We stopped and got more snacks (I guess the brunch wasn't substantial) and got the tire fixed. Half an hour later and we were off! I slept a lot more on this stint than the others, reasonably so. 8 hours of hiking and 4 hours of sleep the day before = sleep through practically anything. Unfortunately, about 1.5 hours from campus and the tire popped again. We drove slowly all the way back to campus and made it by 7:00pm. These trips are so poorly planned, I can't stress that enough. There wasn't even a chaperone on this bus! It was so cool to see this sunrise and the mountains though. I really really enjoyed the stars the most. Huge sky and bright stars. The moon was a tiny sliver. I'd like to go if the moon was full and do it all without flashlights, I'm sure it's doable. Our eyes can adjust to darkness after about 20 minutes, did you know that? We can have night vision comparable to that of a cat!

Spring break is just around the corner, but before my trip to Jordan can happen, I have to get passed 3 midterms and 1 ginormous project. I love you all. Wishing you the best!

just an ordinary day

There are a number of things that I now view as ordinary or normal that I initially would not have seen as such. These are some of the things I have grown accustomed to since my arrival over one month ago.

We don't use paper towels. The bathrooms all over campus are equipped with a roll or two of toilet paper at the sinks for drying hands. Even the kitchen downstairs (every cottage has a kitchen) has a couple toilet paper rolls for drying dishes or cleaning up messes. The toilet paper isn't quality, it's rather rough. But maybe that's why we use it up in such a way. Toilet paper is also thrown in the trash and never in the toilets (Creel anyone?). I remember the first time I paid attention to the toilets flushing. First of all, the 'handle' is a button at about belly button level on the wall behind the toilet (are you getting a visual?). But these toilets flush like a tidal wave! The water rushes up instead of around. Does this make any sense? It looks like a wave is about to come out of the toilet! It doesn't though, thankfully.

About 20 girls in each cottage share the kitchen on the bottom floor. That is, one fridge, one microwave, two hot plates, one sink, and one electric kettle. There are no ovens! I don't cook for myself enough for this to become problematic, but it is sad, good thing I'm not a stress baker! No toasters either...

I have scheduled two times a week for the cleaning ladies to visit my room. Their job is to sweep, mop, wipe down surfaces, and change the sheets/make the bed. It's strange when they come because I'm required to stay in the room and be here, in the way, while they do their job. One minor problem is the scheduled time for monday, I have aerobics at that time so I'm not here to watch them clean the room which means they only come once a week, which is plenty. They are very sweet ladies but we can't communicate at all :( language barrier.

For Lent I'm taking up aerobics 3 times a week. So far so good! This is something I did not see myself ever doing but I exercise to release some of the stress that comes with having a history course. It's fun and I feel great afterwards, so that's good. It's completely normal to me now so it might continue after Easter.

The students here are really fashionable. Designer clothes and this season's best outfits! It's fun to look at, similar to window shopping. On the other hand, girls are likely to wear suede boots and long-sleeve sweatshirts on a daily basis (even when it's 80 degrees). I'm not sure if this is because it's still technically "winter" or because they are being conservative or it's the fashion. It seems sweaty but I'm used to seeing this style by now, I'm sure these women are handling it fine. Also, people are fairly affectionate when they greet one another, but this is only boy/boy or girl/girl. I've seen grown men hug one another and even kiss one another on the cheeks! The men never greet women this way (or vice versa) and at first it was perplexing but now it's just cute. Men usually greet women with a hand shake, a very gentle one, like when a prince bows to kiss the top of her hand but here it's without the bow or the kiss on her hand, see what I mean? I've seen plenty of men holding hands or walking with arms around each other, but still never a man with a woman.

I'll close out with the silliest commonplace thing around here, our cellphones. I have a Vodafone cellphone, I got it only one day after my arrival. It was obnoxiously inexpensive and about 60% (or more) of the international students here have the same carrier. Whenever you call a Vodafone cellphone there is a "ring back tone." Apparently this tone is popular in Egypt. I find it catchy and I even like to dance to it while I'm waiting for someone to pick up the phone. It goes something like, "heyyyyy hey. he-he-he-heyyy. heyyyy hey..." if the person doesn't answer for about 10 seconds of the "heys" it goes into a verse completely in Arabic, but I usually don't wait that long. I think I'm going to miss this song when I come back.

Last weekend I spent an evening out with friends at a club. It was enclosed, loud, and crowded. Worst of all, over half of the people there were chain smoking. Ever since that night my throat has been scratchy. I've been clearing my throat a lot and also coughing. I went to the clinic on campus today and got some antibiotics along with some other drugs I'm supposed to take. It turns out my throat is having a reaction to the smoke and smog. Lucky for me the air on campus is cleaner than downtown. I'm glad I went to the medical center but now I have to work on making my throat all better! Other than that, everything's dandy. I hope all is well with you and your ordinary days wherever you might be. Love!